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BANCROFT 
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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

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ASSEMBLY 


MEMORIAL  AND  JOINT  RESOLUTION 

RELATIVE   TO   THE  UNITED   STATES   MINT 
AT   CARSON   CITY.  NEVADA. 


F  S-  H  i>- 
■  ?r 

.M  H- 


Assembly  Memorial  and  Joint  Resolution. 


RELATIVE  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES  mNT   AT   CARSON 

CITY,  NEVADA. 

To  (he  Senate  and  House  of  Representalives  in  Congress  Assembled  : 

Your  memorialists,  the  Lepjislature  of  the  State  of  Nevada,  respect- 
fully show  that  the  material  interests  of  this  State  are  suffering  on 
account  of  unjust  and  unlawful  discriminations  that  are  being  enforced 
against  our  people  by  the  present  Administration's  method  of  con- 
ducting the  affairs  of  the  Treasury  Department,  having  special 
reference  to  the  closing  of  Ihe  United  States  Mint  at  Carson. 

One  of  the  great  industries  by  which  the  people  of  Nevada  live  is 
mining  for  silver  and  gold.  Whatever,  therefore,  burdens,  dis- 
courages or  imposes  restraints  upon  mining,  hurts  us  in  a  vital  part. 

The  mineral  resources  of  the  State  are  vast  almost  beyond  belief ; 
no  region  of  the  earth  excels  Nevada  in  richness  and  extent. 

From  Idaho  to  Arizona,  a  distance  of  more  than  four  hundred 
miles,  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  to  the  Utah  line,  the  hills 
are  ribbed  with  ledges  bearing  precious  metals. 

The  business  of  mining  is  expensive  and  precarious.  The  ore 
must  be  found,  broken  down  or  blasted  out,  hoisted  to  the  surface, 
transported  to  the  mills,  crushed,  the  metals  extracted,  the  gold  and 
silver  parted,  refined  and  sent  to  market  or  minted  into  coins. 

A  vast  and  permanent  outlay  of  labor  and  capital  is  required  before 
return  of  profit  can  be  hoped  for. 

Capital  is  sensitive ;  it  avoids  precarious  investments  and  unusual 
risks.  A  decline  in  the  value  of  the  metals — real  or  fictitious — an 
intimation  that  the  mines  have  failed  or  the  withdrawal  of  privileges 
before  enjoyed  arrests  development,  depresses  industry,  and  fills  us 
with  apprehension  and  alarm.  It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the 
injury  to  miniiig,  produced  by  the  suspension  of  coinage  at  the 
Carson  Mint  in  April,  1885,  and  the  final  closing  of  that  institution 
in  November  of  that  year. 

It  gave  out  the  intimation  that  the  mines  had  failed,  it  discouraged 
those  who  had  made  investments,  arrested  enterprise  that  had  already 
begun,  and  turned  away  those  who  were  considering  the  advantages 
of  our  situation.  It  deprived  the  prospectors  and  miners  of  all  the 
extensive   region    lying   between   the   Rocky    and    Sierra   Nevada 


Mountains,  of  the  advantage  of  a  sub-treasury,  and  of  a  Mint  to  part, 
refine,  assay,  exchange  and  pnrchase  their  silver  bullion,  and  to  coin, 
exchange,  or  purchase  their  bars  of  gold — a  loss  the  more  serious 
and  irreparable  because  there  is  no  other  institution  nearer  than  San 
Francisco  to  supply  the  deprivation. 

The  bullion  output  of  the  region  accommodated  by  the  Carson 
Mint  was  no  greater  when  the  Mint  was  started  in  1869  than  when  it 
was  closed  in  1885. 

Sources  of  information  entirely  reliable  verify  this  statement.  The 
tax  records  in  the  office  of  the  State  Controller  show  proceeds  of 
mines  returned  for  taxation  in  1884  valued  at  $6,820,912;  in  1885  it 
was  $6,847,405,  and  in  1886  it  was  $6,585,839.  These  figures  (as 
those  furnished  for  purposes  of  taxation  usually  are)  are  beheved  to 
be  far  below  the  actual  value. 

To  this  amount  should  be  added  the  product  of  the  great  mineral 
district  of  Bodie  and  Inyo  county,  California,  tributary  to  the  Car- 
son Mint. 

It  is  absolutely  true  that  the  bullion  output  of  the  country  within 
a  radius  of  fifteeen  miles  of  Carson  is  three  times  as  much  as  could 
possibly  be  handled  by  this  Mint,  though  running  at  its  fullest  ca- 
pacity. 

When  the  Mint  was  established  as  now,  mining  for  the  precious 
metals  was  of  more  than  mere  local  consequence.  It  was  of  national 
importance.  It  furnished  the  basis  of  metallic  money,  prevented  the 
contraction  of  the  currency,  arrested  the  decline  of  values,  strengthened 
the  national  credit  and  stimulated  the  industries,  and  promoted  the 
prosperity  of  the  whole  country.  For  these  reasons,  and  to  foster 
mining,  the  Mint  was  established. 

The  motive  that  actuated  Congress,  undoubtedly,  was  to  pro- 
vide metallic  money  for  the  needs  of  business  and  to  accommodate 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Great  Basin  with  facilities  for  coining  or  sell- 
ing their  bullion. 

It  cannot  be  pretended  that  the  object  was  to  make  a  profit  to  the 
Government.  For  more  than  sixty  years,  from  1792  to  1853,  coin- 
age was  at  the  public;  expense,  and  without  charge  to  the  citizen. 
The  exaction  of  charges  was  for  the  sole  purpose  of  preventing  the 
exporting  and  melting  of  coins  when  a  profit  could  be  realized  and 
recoining  them  when  caprice  suggested  or  temporary  necessity 
required. 

The  causes  which  prompted  and  the  reasons  which  promoted  the 
creation  of  the  Mint  at  Carson  have  not  disappeared.  They  are  as 
cogent  and  controlling  to-day  as  in  1868,  or  at  any  time  since  the 
Mint  was  established. 

The  increased  demand  for  silver  and  gold  has,  in  fact,  augmented 
the  importance  of  mining. 

The  bullion  output  of  the  countr}^  tributary  to  the  Mint  is  almost 
as  great  as  in  1869,  and  five  times  greater  than  the  Mint  has  required 
during  any  year  of  its  existence,  being,  as  we  have  already  set  forth, 
three  times  more  than  it  could  possibly  convert  into  fine  bars  or  coin 
even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 


When  the  Mint  closed  its  doors  there  were  258,241  ounces  of 
refined  silver  and  24,694  ounces  of  gold  ready  for  coining,  and  27,563 
ounces  of  unparted  gold,  and  407,017  ounces  of  unparted  silver 
ready  for  treatment.  The  supply  on  hand  was  sufficient  to  keep  the 
the  Mint  in  operation  six  months.  No  valid  cause  therefore  existed 
for  suspending  operations. 

However  much  we  complain  on  account  of  the  closing  of  the  Mint, 
we  feel  that  still  greater  wrong  is  being  perpetrated  by  the  manner 
of  conducting  it  now  in  vogue.  It  has  been  degraded  from  a  Mint  to 
an  assay  office,  and  this  is  done,  we  verily  believe,  in  order  that  an 
excuse  may  be  had  for  entirely  abandoning  and  dismantling  it. 

From  the  time  it  was  established  it  has  been  run  at  a  profit  to  the 
Government. 

The  total  expenses  of  the  Carson  Mint  for  eight  years,  beginning 
with  the  resumption  of  silver  coinage  in  1878,  were  ^1,158,869  91, 
and  the  total  earnings  during  the  same  period,  $1,149,693  01, 
showing  a  cost  in  excess  of  gains  of  only  $9,276  90,  due  entirely  to 
the  suspension  of  coinage  for  eleven  months  in  the  years  1880,  1881 
and  1882,  the  records  disclosing  that  during  these  years  the  expenses 
were  $122,289  86  in  excess  of  the  gains. 

In  the  years  1883,  1884  and  1885  the  earnings  were  in  excess  of 
the  expenses  more  than  $68,284,  and  in  1885  the  profits  were  $7,147, 
notwithstanding  coinage  was  suspended  in  April. 

We  do  not  bring  out  the  fact  that  the  Mint  can  be  operated  at  a 
profit  to  the  Government  as  a  special  reason  for  resuming  its  opera- 
tions. We  do  not  believe  that  the  Mints,  any  more  than  the  mails, 
dockyards,  arsenals  or  courts,  were  ordained  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  a  pecuniary  profit  to  the  Government.  Such  considerations 
are  trifling  and  puerile  when  addressed  to  a  great  Government,  which 
annually  expends  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  to  better  the  condi- 
tion of  its  citizens.  But  it  is  something  to  the  favor  of  a  public 
institution  established  to  foster  a  great  industry  and  serve  the  con- 
venience of  the  people,  that  it  has  accomplished  the  object  for  which 
it  was  created,  and  gained  a  profit  besides. 

But  the  days  for  operating  this  Mint  at  a  profit  have  gone  by. 
They  departed  when  this  institution  became  an  object  of  discrimina- 
tion. 

They  will  not  return  until  a  change  in  the  policy  of  the  Treasury 
Department  is  eft'ected  by  laws  compelling  a  just  recognition  of  our 
rights. 

The  first  acts  of  the  present  Administration  were  inimical  to 
interests  of  the  Mint  and  of  Nevada,  intending,  doubtless,  to  add 
another  argument  against  the  coinage  of  silver.  It  was  therefore 
deemed  necessary  by  this  hostile  Administration  that  the  Mint  should 
be  made  to  show  a  loss  in  its  operations.  Knowing  that  this  could 
not  be  accomplished  if  it  were  permitted  to  stand  upon  an  equal 
footing  with  other  similar  institutions,  harmful  discriminations  were 
enforced  jigainst  it,  not  only  by  the  Government,  but  also  by  certain 
transportation    companies.     This  very    naturally  drove  the  bulhon 


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past  the  doors  of  our  Mint  to  the  San  Francisco  Mint,  as  well  as  to 
private  assay  offices  and  smelting  works. 

Is  it  marvelous  then,  that  the  deposits  of  bullion  at  the  Carson 
Mint  decreased?  The  only  wonder  is  that  there  should  have  been 
any  deposits  whatever. 

The  foregoing  discloses  a  bad  state  of  affairs,  but  that  is  not  the 
worst  of  it.  Not  content  with  making  rules  greatly  prejudicial  to 
our  Mint,  the  Treasury  Department  took  away  from  it  the  only 
possible  means  of  showing  a  profit,  namely,  the  right  of  coinage. 

Our  Mint  is  now  merely  a  second-class  assay  office,  the  expenses 
of  which  amount  to  more  than  $100  a  day,  while  the  receipts  are 
merely  nominal. 

We  respectfully  submit  that  this  method  of  tr^tment  is  unfair  to 
the  Mint  at  Carson,  and  destructive  of  the  best  interests  of  the  people 
of  the  entire  State. 

We  claim  that  the  Mint  has  been  closed  and  degraded  in  defiance 
of  the  law  of  Congress,  the  Treasury  Department  having  usurped  the 
power  of  the  supreme  legislative  body  of  the  Nation. 

Wherefore,  we  respectfully  memorialize  your  Honorable  Body  to 
venact  statutes  that  will  enforce  a  proper  recognition  of  the  rights  of 
our  [leople,  and  secure  to  us  the  privileges  guaranteed  by  the  laws 
of  our  country. 

Resolved  by  the  Assembly^  the  Senate  concurring^  That  His  Excel- 
lency, the  Governor,  be  requested"*  to  transmit  a  printed  certified 
copy  of  this  memorial  to  each  member  of  the  United  States  Senate 
and  to  each  Representative  in  Congress. 

Resolved^  That  our  Senators  and  Representative  in  Congress  be 
earnestly  requested  to  use  their  best  efforts  to  secure  the  enforcement 
of  existing  laws  relating  to  the  United  States  Mint  at  Carson,  and  to 
procure  the  passage  of  others  that  will  give  us  the  relief  asked  for. 


State  of  Nevada,  ( 

Department  of  State.  )      ' 
I,  John  M.  Dormer,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  State  of  Nevada,  do  hereby  certify  that 
the  annexed  is  a  true,  full  and  correct  copy  of  the  original  "Assembly  Memorial   ai,d 
Joint  Resolution  relative  to  the  United  States  Mint  at  Carson  City,  Nevada,"  on  file  in  my 
office. 

^ — ■ — -;)(:      In  Witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  affixed  the  Great  Seal 
i  oi?AT     I         ^^  State.     Done  at  office  in  Carson  City,  Nevada,  this  twenty-ninth  day 
\  ^^^^-  \         of  January,  A.  D.  1887. 
*^. — *  JOHN    M.   DORMER, 

Secretary  of  State. 


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